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I’d agree 1/72 is about the as standing a long way away from the real thing 100ft 200ft not sure.nut at that distance your only going to get a vague idea of chipping and scratches. Technically the camo colours should be adjusted for the scale too, but who does. This is the constant modelling dilemma do you model what you can see or what you know is there. I think the distemper and weathering looks spot on btw.

Jeff, thanks for staying with it! Thanks Adrian and I think I may prefer the modern kits with the fibre optic harnesses! This must surely be the last picture of the internals that I'll need to post - not sure if it is clear from the pic but the @Rabbit Leader 'packing' has been squeezed in across the width of the fuselage between the bulkheads and below the window line. On top of that is the @PeterB foil to maximise on reflection of light where needed and I have extended the foil over the lower red beacon area to try to keep all that flashing light away from the windows - I really need some sort of preformed plastic tube to butt right up to the provided shield over the flashing bulb, so I am hunting round the house for something suitable - @AdrianMF must have some suggestions here! There is a piece of bubblewrap glued across the front section of windows both sides of the fuselage to try to cut down the brightness from the steady bulb directly behind. Up in the forward area, there is a slice of packing to separate the black cockpit area from the two home made 'light tubes' below which are to channel light down to the nose landing lights, again some foil lining underneath to assist. Also, I have glued a couple of layers of blue celllophane across the opening in the bulkhead that lets the steady light into the cockpit area. Also, I have tried to form up a sort of coaming at the front of the cockpit which will be visible from outside. I'm tempted to put in a couple of 1/144 heads.... When closing up the fuselage, I just need to position in the front undercarriage leg and the rudder which are currently painted white and drying.

This is a lovely build and a very interesting subject! I'm glad you included it in this GB.

Nice painful job Chris

Oh boy Alistair, looks fantastic. What a cracking job. Chris

Belated welcome to the GB I do have a good excuse seeing as how I broke my ankle on Saturday 🤪 Looks like a nice kit.

Such an iconic ship (boat) from the movie! Curious how you will build the exterior of the ship without an interior since the windows are so prominent. Should be a fun build!

I visited no.1 son's yard yesterday I think he's paying his foreman too much The foreman lives next to the yard and at it was a new orange Porsche Cayman

Welcome to the GB. Looks like an interesting kit, the fit reminds me a bit of my Italeri tigers that I’ve started wrestling with today ( some very odd engineering going on there….)

Bit late picking this up, but FYI I did have one set of Eduard masks that did not seem to have been cut all the way through. It was a total mess as trying to get the individual masks to come of the backing sheet caused them to stretch and distort so they did not fit properly, so I complained to them direct and they sent me a replacement set. Seems to be pretty rare but apparently it does happen. Pete

Thanks you both for your info. If the butt strap mod was done in the mid to late 80s as @Phone Phixer says then it would be too late for the time period that I am modelling XV424 in. As for the time periods that you mentioned for XV470 @iainpeden most of them are roughly the time that an aircraft would have spent at Saints. I was at Saints for about 2.5 years on Phantom majors and our team only worked on 6 aircraft during than time, which included one almost going back to Sqn service when I arrived and one coming to Saints when I was posted out (with much delight). At least now I do know that this mod has something to do with the 100FI mod programme. We did have to odd BAe work teams down at Saints when I was there, but they mainly worked on the outer wings. We also used to post on the team board about the aircraft that we were working on the major mod that would be carried out during the service and the biggest one that I remember at the time was the aircrew NBC mods to the cockpits. I may give Hendon a try, but how long does it take them to get the info back to you?

Photos from Michael O'Leary's Building the P-51 Mustang. A really excellent book, with many previously unpublished factory archive photos. Early Allison-engine airframe: Two shots under a P-51B wing. The filled area underneath did not extend as far aft as on top: I am not qualified to question "Mr. Eduard," but of course any access hatches, removable sections, etc. in the sealed areas would have visible seams.

A400M ZM416, callsign Blenheim43. FR24 appears to show that it took off from RAF Honington.

Hi Keith, any drawbacks I should know about? I've heard that the tracks were a little bit on the short side, making them too tight once in place! John, nice to see you too! I've been away far too long, I really miss BM!

Just like waiting for a bus. Nothing happens for ages and then 2 come at once.😉

I too was thinking about trying to add the PR two seat front to the Airfix nacelle/wing (using the PR booms and tail, of course). Got stuck because it seems that the widened two seat pod extends further back than the wing root intakes. That means that the intake geometry of the two seater must be different from that of the single seater but I can’t locate any good reference on that difference. Anybody know anything about this area of the two seater?

Well done Roland. So the shiny NMF looks good, the black needs an even high shine overall. Or you could test out the finish under one of the wings. Regards Toby

If I may, I have something easy but different? My first is my first. My second was the one before me. The first was my third. My fourth was one of my contemporaries My fifth was a cat's cat and another cat. My sixth stands for what I am For full points you have to get each. Hint - two aren't aviation related, just wordplay.

One of the finest 1/72 Tornados I have seen on BM!

Thanks Graham, I've just checked the book and there's a photo of Gremlin Heaven, it definitely has the oval window, the kit has a rectangular one. None of the 100 Group aircraft appear to have the astrodome on the top of the nose above the oval window. Interestingly, many of the aircraft have the oval window plated or painted over. I've got the old Paragon conversion set for the 100 Group for the B-17s and B-24s.

Some nice schemes there!

Naturally all mother animals will be relentless in protecting their young. .. a farm type place I did various jobs for years ago had chickens, lots of them, free ranging everywhere, and if any of the dogs for instance happened to pass too close to a hen with chicks, the hen would kind of inflate itself to virtually double it's size and do a very fierce looking, hissing "display" routine, which invariably sent the intruder packing 😁

Welcome to you Sir. A story similar to one's own,thought the kits of preference back in the 60's were the Airfix Auster,Tiger Moth,Scammell Scarab,Vickers Viscount and Fokker Friendship,usually built under the guidance of one's late Father,whom himself was an aviation buff and aeromodeller. Neither of one's own children are particularly "air-minded",though they do like doing the airshow circuit. The youngest granddaughter however is a different kettle of fish,at five years old she is a very big "Red Arrows" fan. MSFS in it's numerous guises is(or so one is told by a few pilot chums)a very good instrument procedures training aid and can be very useful in keeping one's self "current" to a fair degree. A Cessna 152? ,the more aerobatic relative of the old 150. Dependant on your required scale, 1/72: https://vfrmodels.co.uk/ 1/48:https://www.scalemates.com/kits/bandai-8516-cessna-a150l--313748 Originally a Bandai kit,reboxed by Academy/Minicraft/Revell in various guises over the years.

přistoupili k dohodě a nákupu pěkných výlisků od firmy AMK Výlisky means sprues, so this should be limited edition and great opportunity to buy good kit quite cheaply. Last post from AMK on their FB page is from 21 January, they seem to be working as usual: https://www.facebook.com/avantgardemodelkits/posts/pfbid02yRVfCeRtUxkNVyw8WGrfsJbbrEpNi94C3EWwu72RcH8tr521ycQ3BZRCBGM6fSxql

The pitot looks great. I did that recently, partly due to me moving from old shared hobby room to new dedicated space, and it made me feel very good! T.